My 10 Years With Ginger Morgan

The 150 mile stretch between Little Rock and West Memphis tested my mettle perhaps more than any other on my first cross country walk for canine cancer.

Temperatures were spiking upwards of 100 with heat indices at suffocating sweltering levels such that the risk was too great for Hudson and Murphy. I could barely catch a breath after walking just a mile.

I walked the Arkansas Delta alone and it was brutal. During the day biting horse flies attacked relentlessly along shadeless swampy country roads and at night a constant onslaught of mosquitoes swarmed me. I can still feel the chemical glow from all the DEET I sprayed on my body just to keep a perimeter from them. I rarely slept more than minutes at a time.

Walking into Memphis, I was beat up and beat down but damn glad to be there and then I met Ginger Morgan…

Recently we celebrated our 10 year "anniversary" and I've spent some time writing and reflecting on this momentous occasion. It was in no small part Trail Magic that brought us together but for Ginger it was initially just to check on the health and happiness of Hudson and Murphy.

By the time we met, the Fuzzybutts and I were 600 miles or so into our Austin to Boston walk so we were pretty road tested and knew what we were doing. Reflecting on it now, that one quality of Ginger speaks everything about her and that has made all the difference.

Ginger really is all about dogs and that passion and devotion is a part of every facet of her existence. She will go to extremes to help our companions in need and I've rarely seen her turn anyone down and more than a few times a year Ginger fosters dogs.

I thought a lot about what I wanted to write in commemorating my ten years with Ginger. Highlighting her many accomplishments and milestones acheived with Puppy Up and how proud I am to have her as Executive Director was an option but speaking to her person seems much more important.

Without any qualifications Ginger is a True Believer and in this we are kindred spirits. And like those who give everything to their cause and mission, she and I have sacrificed more than most for our companions and Ginger has always done so without complaint or reservation.

One of the cosmic ironies about my travels is that I was never really a dog guy until I met Malcolm. Sure I had a passion for nature and its curiosities but as the few who know me would attest I'm too hardcore to have pets. Ginger is a natural with dogs and in all honesty, my own two little ingrates - Hudson and Indiana - love her more than me!

Murphy took to her immediately and although he was always my son and loyal to me, he loved Ginger completely and we share the loss of him together. As well as Pete, Buddy, Morgan, Faye, Honey, Cliffy, PJ - all lost to cancer. Part of what makes our association so special to me is our shared losses.

There is a military saying - we share the same blood in the same mud. And that's what the ten years since I met her have been - a battle against the greatest enemy to our shared common species.

Another bit of irony is when Hudson & Murphy and I walked the final mile in Boston with hundreds of people from 23 states (the photo is us hugging after the long journey), everyone talked about how Ginger should be sainted or cannonized is the proper term. And I'm thinking - "I just walked 2,300 miles against all odds and she's the saint?"

The truth is - and don't tell her I said this - Ginger really is a saint, even if a redheaded one. I've met many many 'dog' people on our travels and most are great but there are some bad actors out there and the ones that really aren't all about the dogs.

The other cosmic irony is that I am a Dog - born in 1970 and if you, like I do, believe in Trail Magic it was only inevitable that a dog would meet a true dog lover and that connection has made so much magic and touched thousands of lives all across this country!

Although I hope our continued commitment to funding cutting edge research at the Puppy Up Foundation yields significant progress over the next decade so that we don't have to keep doing this - Here's to another 10 years for the cause and for our companions!

(YBD Notes 1: I love the title of this post as it implies such an ordeal it's been knowing Ginger... kind of like 7 Years in Tibet)